Gaming for a cure: Computer gamers tackle protein folding
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- Almibry
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Biochemists and computer scientists at the University of Washington two years ago launched an ambitious project harnessing the brainpower of computer gamers to solve medical problems.
The game, Foldit, turns one of the hardest problems in molecular biology into a game a bit reminiscent of Tetris. Thousands of people have now played a game that asks them to fold a protein rather than stack colored blocks or rescue a princess.
Results published Thursday (Aug. 5) in the journal Nature show that Foldit is a success. It turns out that people can, indeed, compete with supercomputers in this arena. Analysis shows that players bested the computers on problems that required radical moves, risks and long-term vision -- the kinds of qualities that computers do not possess.
"People in the scientific community have known about Foldit for a while, and everybody thought it was a great idea, but the really fundamental question in most scientists' minds was 'What can it produce in terms of results? Is there any evidence that it's doing something useful?'"said principal investigator Zoran Popović, a UW associate professor of computer science and engineering.
"I hope this paper will convince a lot of those people who were sitting on the sidelines, and the whole genre of scientific discovery games will really take off,"he said.
More at link..
The game, Foldit, turns one of the hardest problems in molecular biology into a game a bit reminiscent of Tetris. Thousands of people have now played a game that asks them to fold a protein rather than stack colored blocks or rescue a princess.
Results published Thursday (Aug. 5) in the journal Nature show that Foldit is a success. It turns out that people can, indeed, compete with supercomputers in this arena. Analysis shows that players bested the computers on problems that required radical moves, risks and long-term vision -- the kinds of qualities that computers do not possess.
"People in the scientific community have known about Foldit for a while, and everybody thought it was a great idea, but the really fundamental question in most scientists' minds was 'What can it produce in terms of results? Is there any evidence that it's doing something useful?'"said principal investigator Zoran Popović, a UW associate professor of computer science and engineering.
"I hope this paper will convince a lot of those people who were sitting on the sidelines, and the whole genre of scientific discovery games will really take off,"he said.
More at link..
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- Gaming, Science, Learn, Education Crisis
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ThoughtNu
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' Games' , are interactive puzzles ; an excellent 'toy' can and has; been effectively utilized as 'tools' before .. vise/versa- sling- shot, yoyo, boomerang..
- 1 year ago
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ThoughtNu
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Almibry
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ThoughtNu:
lol That reminds me of a truly horrible movie "Yo-Yo Girl Cop". It was a bit like the 80's version(s) of "The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" and that was the only time I've seen the yo-yo used the way it was originally intended: as a weapon.
OK it wasn't completely bad. - 1 year ago
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Almibry
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ThoughtNu
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Almibry:
lol i actually remember that movie...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqAFPVLVomk
not like i would know about 'girlie' movies...lol
- 1 year ago
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ThoughtNu
